The Houthis of Yemen, supported by Iran, announced Monday October 5 that they had struck the international airport of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, a refinery of the giant Aramco as well as several sites in the south of the kingdom.
Turkey and Pakistan, linked by a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia, announced Monday that they were sending military forces to the kingdom, the target of regular attacks by Houthi fighters from Yemen.
These attacks, carried out in particular using drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, “targeted the international airport of Riyadh”, declared the military spokesperson of the Houthis, Yahya Saree, adding that “the Aramco refinery in Rabigh” had also been hit, as well as military sites and airports in the south of the country.
Also readSaudi Arabia accuses Houthis of attacking the holy city of Medina
In the evening, loud explosions were heard in Riyadh by an AFP journalist and residents. “I saw my windows shaking,” described one of them, living not far from the international airport of the Saudi capital.
Coalition strikes “military targets” in Al-Hodeida
At the same time, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced that it had struck “military targets” in Al-Hodeida, a major Red Sea port under Houthi control. Coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Malki told X that naval forces had “destroyed weapons depots, boat bomb and mine facilities” and had “foiled a planned attack” targeting southern Red Sea waterways.
Hostilities between Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, and Houthi fighters, who have ruled much of Yemen for a decade, resumed in July after years of lull, opening a new front in the Middle East war.
Following a lightning offensive in September, the Houthis took control of Yemen’s entire western coastline, bordering the Red Sea. And they have since regularly targeted the neighboring kingdom’s oil and military installations.
Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces, struggling to repel Houthi attacks, have repeatedly requested international support, notably from the United States, without success so far.
Also readAttacked by the Houthis, Saudi Arabia discovers the limits of its alliance with Washington
Offensive on Sanaa
After a meeting in Riyadh, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed to move “immediately to put into practice the mutual defense agreement”, signed in August in Mecca, and “to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and means, and deploy them quickly in the kingdom”, it is written in a joint press release from the three countries.
The text does not directly name the pro-Iranian Houthis, but “condemns in the strongest terms” the strikes targeting the holy cities of Medina and Mecca – attributed to the Houthis by Saudi Arabia – as well as “the continued attacks on cities and civil and economic installations” in the country.
This is the first time that this agreement bringing together NATO’s second army (Turkey), the main power in the Gulf (Saudi Arabia) and the only nuclear power in the Muslim world (Pakistan) has been put into action.
Supported by Saudi warplanes, Yemen’s government forces announced on Sunday a vast counter-offensive to retake recently conquered territories from the Houthis, or even dislodge them from the entire country. They claimed to have carried out more than 1,000 strikes and launched an offensive on the capital Sanaa, in the hands of the Houthis since 2015.
Houthi fighters, for their part, warned airlines that the skies above Saudi Arabia were “unsafe” – with the exception of the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, which they maintain they never targeted.
Towards the recovery of the strategic town of Mokha?
On Sunday, the very strategic East-West oil pipeline, which allows Saudi Arabia to transfer its oil blocked in the east due to the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz to the west of the kingdom, was also targeted, and was shut down – it had already had to be shut down last month. The boss of Saudi oil giant Aramco has warned of the “dangerously low” level of global oil stocks.
The coalition also declared “ensuring aerial protection of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait”, essential for the transport of hydrocarbons.
In September, the Houthis strengthened their control over this strait, whose strategic importance increased with Iran’s blocking of that of Hormuz, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, after the start of the war in the Middle East in February.
Fighting between government forces and the Houthis also continues on Yemen’s coast, where military sources said Monday that pro-government forces had cut off the only supply route to the town of Mokha, taken by the Houthis in September – although refraining from officially confirming the recapture of this strategic port.
With AFP
